Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Monsterpocalypse! Wait, what the?

All right, Monsterpocalpyse has finally released! I've mentioned it on here a few times, and I must say, I am still keen on its release, maybe not as much now though as I was. Still, I was looking into maybe picking up a starter set or two, but I got to browsing...where you may be paying a premium for shiny packaging and new models with MonPoc, you may get just as much fun, if not more, at a fraction of the price from one of the originals...

Giant Monster Rampage. This came out in 2002, a full six years before Monsterpocalypse. Let's see, giant Ultraman throwing a right hand uppercut; check. Godzilla-like critter with a big horn on its nose; check. Buildings getting crushed; check. Ground forces and tanks scrambling; check. Air units; check. Here's the review, check it out. Now...

In addition to Giant Monster Rampage, there's another solid game out there called Monster Island. It came out about the same time, six years ago, and features many of the same mechanics. At both games lies the core; having fun smashing each other's Kaiju and stomping on tanks and buildings in the process. Here's the review on Monster Island, again at a fraction of the price.

Well, I guess make that all three games, including the newcomer. Now Earth-marauding saucers aren't that unique, granted, but once again; the similarities above (sorry for the grainy image) and below are awfully coincidental. I twice call shenanigans!

You can't deny the production value, or artistic quality of what MonPoc has to offer though, and I know Giant Monsters are nothing new, but in a gaming format, they're a bit of a unique niche. I am a little put-off though by Privateer Press' not-so-subtle translation. In the secondary market, it might be good to pick up singles to use with these other rule sets I've mentioned. I've heard the MonPoc rules aren't overly complex, so it could be good to pick up as a beer 'n pretzels game, or something to play with the wee ones. Speaking of rules, you can get the free Monsterpocalypse ones here, scroll to the bottom...